Outside the YMCA on Tupper St. downtown, near where the Children’s Hospital used to be, dozens of Haitians newly arrived from the United States milled about Wednesday, clutching government documents and looking slightly lost, while Montreal Haitians of long standing came to lend a hand and load their cars with luggage.

“Haitians help Haitians,” one volunteer explained.

Jean Dorméus was among Montreal’s flood of new arrivals. The secretary-general of a political youth group in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, Dorméus, 23, fled six months ago when individuals threatened to kill him and his family, he said. Since his father was likewise threatened and assassinated, Dorméus took the threat seriously. His mother and sister fled to neighbouring Dominican Republic and he flew to Mexico, then crossed into San Diego to ask for asylum.

He lived in Pennsylvania for six months, but in Donald Trump’s America, Dorméus was told, his chances for asylum were slim and odds of deportation strong.

“It’s not good for us there now,” he said. “It’s not safe in the U.S., and I can’t go back to Haiti.”

So he surfed the Internet for instructions on how to get to Canada and, in June, took a bus to Plattsburgh, N.Y., then paid a taxi driver $70 for the 20-minute ride to the border. He crossed over, was promptly arrested by Canadian police officers and requested asylum.

At the Y, Haitians from the United States were lining up for rooms, but many were told they would be transferred because there was no more room at the inn.

This “increasing wave” of Haitian refugee claimants forced officials to open a temporary shelter in the Olympic Stadium Wednesday while scrambling to keep up with a demand they fear shows no signs of slowing.

The first busload of asylum seekers arrived at the stadium Wednesday morning. About 150 beds had been set-up over the weekend.

Francine Dupuis, who oversees PRAIDA, a government-funded program to help seekers get on their feet in Quebec, said the number of refugee claimants is unprecedented.

Following a recent wave of Syrian refugees, most are now Haitians fleeing the United States for fear their temporary resident status will be revoked and hoping to find refuge in Montreal’s large Haitian community.

“It’s unheard of,” Dupuis said. “In 30 years, I’ve never seen this kind of volume or intensity.”

Dupuis said about 90 per cent of asylum seekers coming into Quebec now are Haitian. In July, PRAIDA received 1,200 new requests for refugees, nearly four times more than an average month.

“We’re doing our best, but obviously there’s going to be a limit. And we’re close to that limit.”

The situation started in May when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to remove the temporary protected status granted to nearly 60,000 Haitians living in the country, given in the aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.

In a series of tweets, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre welcomed the refugees and called the situation “another consequence” of Trump’s immigration politics. In a statement, Coderre said he had a “constructive conversation” with Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil about the influx of refugees.

Since Montreal became a sanctuary city in February, Coderre said, asylum seekers have access to the city’s municipal services. The city is also helping PRAIDA find emergency housing.

At the Tupper St. YMCA, Sudanese refugee Hassan Elfaki recounted how he flew to Houston, Tex., then Googled “How to get into Canada.” When he and his wife and two children got off the bus in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Friday, there were several minibuses waiting, their drivers shouting “Canada! Canada!” and charging $50 a head for a trip to the border.

“The police in Canada were very kind, very welcoming,” Elfaki said.

Immigration employees transferred Elfaki’s family to the YMCA, but there was no room, so they had to take a $75 taxi ride to a hotel in Pointe-aux-Trembles. Elfaki said his family is already being told they have to leave the hotel because there is no space. He plans to move to Toronto to be with family after his immigration hearing at the end of the month.

Everyone else coming across the border the day he crossed was Haitian, Elfaki said.

Provincial government officials are holding a press conference Thursday to address the situation.

“But I don’t think anybody has the answers,” Dupuis said. “Nobody knows when it’s going to stop. At one point, I think the government will have to make a decision — do we continue to receive them, and if we do, where are the resources going to come from?”

A group of asylum seekers leave the Olympic Stadium to go for a walk, in Montreal on Wednesday, Aug. 2. The stadium is being used as temporary housing to deal with the influx of asylum seekers arriving from the United States.Ryan Remiorz /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Marjorie Villefranche, the director general of the Maison d’Haïti, said she started hearing from Haitian families in New York and Florida as early as May.

“They’ve been panicking,” Villefranche said. “They’re vulnerable people who do not want to return to Haiti because of how difficult a situation it would be for them.”

Figures compiled by the Canadian Border Services Agency indicate Quebec has become Canada’s main entry point from the United States. The CBSA figures show that, of the 4,345 people who either sought asylum at border stations or were intercepted by police in the first six months of 2017, 3,350 were recorded in Quebec.

PRAIDA offers medical, nursing and psychosocial services to asylum seekers, hosting them in a dozen locations across Montreal — in empty schools, rehab centres, hotels and YMCAs — while helping them with the required paperwork.

It was the first time the agency reached out to the Olympic Stadium.

Olympic Stadium spokesperson Cédric Essiminy said officials were approached on Friday about hosting refugees for the next couple of months. As of Wednesday, the stadium had 150 beds set up in a communal space in its western hall, where caregivers will be using a nearby concession stand to prepare and distribute food. Refugees will also have access to 20 showers in an unused team locker room. The space can accommodate up to 450 beds. Hosting the refugees will not affect any of the stadium’s activities, Essiminy added.

Back at the Y, new arrival Dorméus was explaining that he appreciated his relief cheque of $650 a month, but was having trouble making ends meet after paying the rent on the $700-a-month plus utilities apartment he shares with another Haitian asylum seeker.